Pointless Sex Scenes and Romances in Movies/TV/Games/Books

Asita

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EMWISE94 said:
This is seriously one of my biggest gripes with media at times, I'm not against romance, one of my favourite IP's, the Scott Pilgrim franchise, is centred around romance (sure its filtered through some serious hipster lenses, but its still romance... sorta) and I at times enjoy some mushy scenes, but the big problem I've seen is that Hollywood can't seem to have two characters of opposite genders be around each other for an extended period of time without proclaiming their feelings for each.
In other words, they agree with Harry in When Harry Met Sally. :p

 

ccggenius12

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mojopin87 said:
Elves and dwarves actually getting along at all is supposed to be super rare and is the reason why Legolas and Gimli gradually becoming best friends is such a big deal in the books. The idea that a dwarf and an elf would have any romantic interest in one another is a huge contradiction to the established lore between the races, adds nothing to the movies except to drag out a short story even longer.
I could have sworn Gimli also found himself completely enamored with Galadriel, to the point where he valued her appearance more than material wealth. For someone who's supposed to be of a race that's the stereotypical Jew metaphor, that's huge.
 

Parasondox

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EMWISE94 said:
This is seriously one of my biggest gripes with media at times, I'm not against romance, one of my favourite IP's, the Scott Pilgrim franchise, is centred around romance (sure its filtered through some serious hipster lenses, but its still romance... sorta) and I at times enjoy some mushy scenes, but the big problem I've seen is that Hollywood can't seem to have two characters of opposite genders be around each other for an extended period of time without proclaiming their feelings for each.
I think I read somewhere where some viewers and some Hollywood studio, preferred Harry and Hermione (Harry Potter) to hook up because they were two good looking young leads. J.K. Rowling didn't that and only wanted them as friends. Men and women can be just friends in the real world, Hollywood. Like Brother and Sister most of the time.
 

Anja Bech

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I absolutely hate those characters that are purely there as 'the love interest', particularly prevalent in action movies. That was one of the things that made The Boondock Saints feel like such a breath of fresh air to me; no love story arch. It is so rare to have a movie without some kind of love story. I can't really come up with any other than the Saints right now.

It was also one of the things that seriously turned me off the new series Constantine - Zed. This person is obviously only there to have sexual tension with the main character. She has a very interesting power, but hey, lets reduce what ever her character could be to 'will they, won't they'. The fact that it feels so forced makes it really awkward to watch.
 

Silvanus

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Game of Thrones is terrible for this. Unnecessary Littlefinger brothel scene, unnecessary Osha undressing scene, unnecessary Daenerys nakedness... It's over the top. The books are bad for this sometimes, but nowhere near as bad as the show. I say this as someone who loves both.
 

sageoftruth

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Silvanus said:
Game of Thrones is terrible for this. Unnecessary Littlefinger brothel scene, unnecessary Osha undressing scene, unnecessary Daenerys nakedness... It's over the top. The books are bad for this sometimes, but nowhere near as bad as the show. I say this as someone who loves both.
I agree.

There's always those awkward points in games or movies where a new character is introduced and the way it's done makes me roll my eyes and go, "Introducing, the love interest" or "Why hello there, love interest".

My most recent experience was in Shadow of Morodor, when a woman appears out of nowhere after a major scene, and everything that happened between her and the main protagonist could be described as a giant "Love interest" neon sign flashing above her head. She was kind of important to advance the plot, but she could have easily done that without being an unnecessary love interest.
 

Lunar Templar

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Every Bioware game with this 'feature'. No, you don't need to 'romance' your squad to save the world/universe.

Saints Row 4 as well, but, eh ... I'm more inclined to give SR4 a pass since it's making fun of the 'romance or squad' non sense.
 

Dragonlayer

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Nickolai77 said:
Dragonlayer said:
While they do typically serve to advance the plot without making my eyeballs roll right out of their sockets, the romances in just about every Bernard Cornwell novel takes the concept of "love at first sight" and then jams it down your throat until you violently expunge your stomach contents. Doesn't matter what brutal war is going on, or how important the character's current mission is, a woman will be spotted whose beauty is supposedly so awe-inspiring, so divinely perfect that *all* the male characters will drop whatever they're doing and hound said woman for the rest of the book. Quite pathetic really: "I am the greatest warrior in Medieval France, an undefeated jouster and a Christian warrior so fundamentalist I believe my amazing skill at arms comes from the Virgin Mother Herself making me promise never to succumb to the temptations of the flesh! Now I shall do my patriotic duty and slau-WOAH ENGLISH TITS! Welp, time to betray everything I ever stood for!"
I guess you're referring to his books set during the 100 years war?

I have not read them, but i've read his Warlord series and the King Arthur one. There isn't really any significant wishy washy romance in the former, but in the Arthur series there's a lot so you may want to avoid it. However, there are a lot of disclaimers I should emphasise here.

1: The flowery romance in Cornwell's Arthur series works well because of the nature of the topic he's writing about.

2: Cornwell doesn't have a soppy view to romance were " true love conquers all". He uses love and romance really to advance the plot by creating division and conflict.

If you want a totally romance free novel by Cornwell I suggest you read The Fort.


OT: Romance, love and sex to me is pointless when it is used as a side-plot aside from the main storyline. Hollywood actions films are bit culprits of this offence. Really, romance and sex should be integrated as part of the overall story- central to the character's personality and motivations, and one that advances the plot forward. What i hate is when it's put into a plot of a book or film as if it were some sort of food condiment.
Aye, 1356 in particular though I recall that it's a very prevalent trope in much of his work: the first novel in the Starbuck Chronicles is especially grating as EVERYTHING happens because Starbuck is being led around by a half-dozen women. "Where do I stand on state rights vs the union? Dunno, I'll just follow my throbbing cock's lead!" And I don't think Cornwell is that soppy, but he does have a ridiculous amount of instances where all men are reduced to mindless drooling masses of lust because there's a non-plague stricken woman or something.

Thanks for the suggestion but I've already read the Fort.
 

Augustine

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It was always my suspicion that among all the creative endeavors, be they books, songs, poetry, or else, "love" holds almost a monopoly. Dig deep enough in vast majority of narratives, and you will find some connection. This seems to be our greatest focus - the greatest drama of human life.
With that in mind, I recall the quote by, I believe, Hitchcock:
"Drama is but real life, with all the boring parts cut off." Which sounds a lot like the object of our critique.

Insta-romance-anywhere syndrome has been around for as long as men told stories. I'd argue even Homer's Iliad suffers from that. Can it be that this is what we all subconsciously desire?
 

LarsInCharge

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The issue with Game of Thrones at least is that while the sex was just there because it was in the books so let's dial it up to eleven syndrome, a large portion of the audience watch it solely BECAUSE of those scenes. Usually teenagers. Not just guys either, I know at least two girls that would give up their favorite thing ever for 5 minutes alone with a willing Emilia Clarke.

So the latter seasons appealed more and more to THAT demographic. Doesn't make it better, you just know who to blame.
 

Darth Rosenberg

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As a defence - or, maybe, explanation - of BioWare's various scenes; sure, they're often either eye-rolling, absurdly and incongruously coy and awkward, but they're part of a mainstream movement towards emotionality being a gameplay element, as opposed to just--- well, vanilla gameplay or an IP's plot.

As such, they represent the tentative mainstream fumblings of a medium beginning to come to terms with slightly more mature themes. So I think they're encouraging, no matter how daft. They need to be less timid, though. If constant violence and death is a-okay, then nudity, at least, must be included as well (sex/nudity = good, violence = bad).

TV: I'll give Game Of Thrones some more stick, as it sure as hell deserves it (especially season 2). Too much nudity's a given, but at least it sometimes actually bothers to show full frontal male nudity, as well.

Film: I think Blue Is The Warmest Colour is an overrated, exploitative, and slightly unpleasant mess (featuring some great moments and two brilliant central performances, granted), and I think that film's sex scenes undermined the relatable intimacy it established early on.
 

Fox12

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erttheking said:
Can I just point game of Thrones and say 90% of the sex scenes in that? Seriously, it gets really annoying that the show keeps shoving boobs into my face while also expecting me to take it seriously.
The books are even worse, which is weird, because a lot of the characters are, like, thirteen. Some people claim that behavior was normal in the Middle Ages, but somehow I don't think daenarys's hot naked lesbian scene was included for historical accuracy. Keeping in mind that she's much younger then in the show. Or cersei's similar scene. It's a little silly, really. I could live with this, but evidently some people have gotten it into their heads that violence and sex, as opposed to intelligence and good writing, make something more mature. I've honestly heard people claim that Lord of the Rings is inferior because the characers are never shown having sex. This is rediculous, of course, as the silmarillion has just as much incest and blood as GoT, but I digress. A misplaced sex scene is pointless, and intellectually insulting. As if we can't pay attention without sex. Berserk actually handled its scenes with care, as they're used to build a plot point or, more often, explore a characters broken psyche.

The point is, if it doesn't forward the plot or characters, it has to go. Unfortunately some publishers will evidently force their writers to include more sex in an attempt to sell more copies.
 

masseyguy911

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Silvanus said:
Game of Thrones is terrible for this. Unnecessary Littlefinger brothel scene, unnecessary Osha undressing scene, unnecessary Daenerys nakedness... It's over the top. The books are bad for this sometimes, but nowhere near as bad as the show. I say this as someone who loves both.
I have to completely agree with you. Honestly, the Littlefinger scene made me laugh for just how unnecessary it was. "Look at how clever I am! I know how this Game of Thrones really works! NOW BEND HER OVER SOME MORE!"
That scene alone kinda killed my interest in watching the show, but I did manage to finish the first two seasons. Most of the sex scenes in the books, however, I didn't particularly care much for one way or the other.
 

Fieldy409_v1legacy

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Paradox SuXcess said:
Mass Effect: Yes you don't have to do a romance but when you do, it just feels rushed and really not needed. But hey, if you need the Trophy or Achievement then go for it.
Hehe, nowadays when I play Mass Effect having got the achievement long ago, I will flirt with the characters because the flirting can be fun, and establish a relationship right up until they want to have sex and them I am just like "Go away" because I dont want to sit through the stupid cutscenes. But most of the flirting in the game boils down to just being nice.
 

omega 616

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To be honest, I can only think of one example of a sex in a movie that didn't make me feel like it was for nothing but titillation ... that movie is "love and other drugs".

Was just about a couple in love, it just felt natural.

In games it feels like a little reward or goal. In tv it feels like porn. And in movies "something for the dads" ... you know, a little fan service to rekindle the male attention to the film.
 

Someone Depressing

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Bioware games. All of them, especially the Mass Effect games (all of them) and Dragon Age: Origins. They're just so terrible. Want to have? Ask personal questions, tell them that you think they are pretty, have lifeless ragdoll sex devoid of fanservice, with a thick coat of seeringly painful sexy-time retardant on it, coupled with awful music that sounds like an opera singer stubbing her toe on a door, and boom.

You have have genital dysfunction. They're that bad. Oh so forced, and so unimportant to the story.

Just for once, I want two characters to jump into bed after a randomly written scene, only to then jump into an elaborate song and dance in which they are dressed as bunny girls and chippendales.

It would be the best metaphor that I haven't figured out yet ever.
 

FirstNameLastName

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I'm going to go for the unoriginal option that everyone has already said before, and will be said many more times. Put me down for GoT as well. My first reaction was "neat, tits. I'm not sure why they are here, but some nice tits are not exactly unwelcome." And originally i was on the side of thinking people who have a problem with it are just being whiny, but as time has gone on my opinion of the sex scenes have somewhat soured. Mainly because Season 5 is apparently due for 2015; and season 6, 2016; season 7, probably the year after that.
I have to wait 3 years to see the end of the series, do you think I'm waiting eagerly for more tits? Of course not, I don't have to wait years for tits, i don't have to wait a year for tits, not a month, not a week, not even a day or an hour. If i want to see tits on a screen, all I have to do is open another tab, I wouldn't even have to leave google for it. It just seems such a shame that they have done a reasonable job (not great) of compressing the massive tomes they were derived from into a TV series, only to pad it out with unnecessary sex. I've heard many people claim they are good for exposition, and that's sort of true, but i think some of them do run on way too long, and some of the exposition isn't all that relevant.

I've heard some people claiming that all the sex scenes are justified since they are in the book, to that i would say, really? I have most of the books on my self, but I'm only up to the second one, does the sexual content of the books drastically increase in later books? Because the first season of GoT was packed with sex, but the book on the other hand, the book seemed to have virtually none. In fact, aside from Daenerys I can't actually name a sex scene in the book that was anything more than implicit.
 

WolfThomas

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I'm glad Captain America and the Winter Solider actually romantic/sexual subplots. There was some sexual tension but that was it.
 

soren7550

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The most pointless that comes to mind is also a love triangle. *shudders*

In the books Eon and Eona (fat skinny is it's not China, and there's these people that are granted powers by these twelve dragons that are based on the Chinese zodiac. One of these people decides to overthrow the system, hilarity ensues).

So, who are our love interests? One is the new emperor that's utterly violent and flips between calm and enraged like a switch. The other is the guy who overthrew the old emperor, killed almost all of the dragon order, made his apprentice go mad, and was going to imprison the protagonist, take control of her mind and body, and rape her.

Clearly, both of these people aren't fit to be given a kind word, BUT THIS ***** SERIOUSLY LOVES THEM BOTH AND DOESN'T KNOW WHO TO HOOK UP WITH.

This whole thing made me want to throw the books across the room and set them aflame.


With those in mind, I suppose the one in The Hunger Games novels is also pretty pointless, and OH MY GOD I JUST REMEMBERED THE HOUSE OF NIGHT NOVELS.

Okay, seriously, fuck the romances in those books, and fuck those books in general. There's like eighty romances throughout the books, and just about none of them work. The main character alone has about six people she jumps between, usually having two at the same time she just can't choose between! As for the rest of the characters, typically whenever a relationship ends (either through stupid, the relationship being forgotten about, or death) they get right into another one, and oh golly gee they're just madly in love already!



This trend in books really worries me.